Monroerising.com

Here’s wishing all mothers (and those who aren’t but have truly filled the role) a very Happy Mother’s Day.

Over these years, as Mrs. Peabody and I raised our own children, I came to realize and truly appreciate what my own mother had given me – love, support, care and most important, training!  I know I never would have been able to raise my family had it not been for my own mother.  And when our first child was born, I remember asking myself how in the world was I going to be able to do this.  It’s funny sometimes how life works.  It turned out to be almost second nature. All of the important things my mother gave me and instilled in me in life, I found myself passing onto and providing for my own children.

I still thank her to this day for all the things she gave me, especially the things I hated most when I was a child.  While I didn’t understand then, I now know that those were the most important and would guide me later in life as I crossed those bridges with my own children.  As a matter of fact, it’s been a while, so once again… thanks mom.

And thank you and all my love to Mrs. Peabody.  She did an exceptional job with our own children, covering all the important bases that I really wasn’t qualified or capable to handle.  Because of her, I have no fear and not the slightest trepidation when they start their own families.  They had the best teacher in the world — their mom.

So, thank you mom, thank you Mrs. Peabody and thank you to all the moms all over the world.

Enjoy your day!  You deserve it.

Tags: Articles, Mr. Peabody by Mr. Peabody
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State employee Dan Gunderson was very lucky that the Democrat and Chronicle broke the story on his misuse of state taxpayers dollars to feed him and his friends at some fancy schmancy restaurants.  Poor Danny Boy is only paid $187,000 by us “rich” lower/middle class taxpayers.  Had this been a story written by the New York Posts’s Fred Dicker, it probably would have been more thorough and fairly written.

It’s comical to see that the only people Jay Gallagher sought out for comment on this story were a spokesperson from DEMOCRAT Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, who said that “… it’s not clear if these expenses violate state guidelines.”  Really? That ENTIRE state department is UNCLEAR? [Read more →]

Tags: Articles, Mr. Peabody, New York State, The Media by Mr. Peabody
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Monroerising wrote a number of articles covering the antics of State Assemblyman Gantt and his band of forty thugs during our “David Gantt attempts to hijack the selection of Public Defender” series.  If you missed them, feel free to reread here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, aaannnnnd here.

Well Gannett News Service Political Scene Reporter Joseph Spector wrote a neat little piece that helps shed some light on why Gantt all of the sudden had such an unusual spurt of energy back then.  Here’s Spector’s post:

The state Democratic Committee completed its selection today of its 320 delegates and alternates to attend the Democratic National Convention in Denver this summer.

They also named four new superdelegates, all of which are backing Hillary Rodham Clinton — Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, former Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli and state Assemblywoman Carmen Arroyo.

Clinton has 139 pledged delegates and Obama has 93 pledged delegates.

Here’s the list of the delegates selected today.

[Read more →]

Tags: Articles, David Gantt, Mr. Peabody by Mr. Peabody
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Even though I’m voting for John McCain (I just can’t bring myself to vote for Socialism in this country) I was however very impressed with Barack Obama’s speaking ability. When he has some momentum, his speeches are uplifting and you are actually glued to your seat listening to him. However, when he hits a bump in the road, like when the Hillary political machine attacks him for a misspeak or with the Reverend Wright issue constantly looming over his head, Obama gets really thrown off his game. He stammers with his response and it takes some time for him to get back on track. My concern is that if he’s elected President, he won’t have the luxury of taking time to compose himself when he hits the daily bumps in the road as Commander in Chief. As Bill Clinton and George Bush found out, the leader of the free world has to be able to react immediately and with confidence and decisiveness.

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Tags: Articles, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Mr. Peabody by Mr. Peabody
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While trolling through the D&C editorial blogs recently in an effort to find some semblance of fair and balanced reporting from the powers that be over there, I actually happened upon an excellent post from Tom Tobin that blows the whistle on some political hanky panky going on with some appointments to a local board — and no, it’s not the Public Defender or the President of MCC. 

 It’s a board that is supposed to manage millions of dollars in state funding for improvements to deteriorating city schools.

Here’s Tobin’s post in its entirety:

The games being played over at MCC should stick in the collective craw, but there are political games being played as well over the naming of the special board required by law to oversee the huge school modernization project in the city. Mayor Duffy mentioned it yesterday during his visit to the Editorial Board, and said that he and school superintendent Brizard are close to making their appointments to the board.

It’s taken months to get this thing set up. Why? Because there’s a ton of money, perhaps as much as $1 billion in design, construction and other kinds of contracts at play here, and you can believe that the special interests want not only a place at the table but enough clout to have things their way. Much of this is going on behind the scenes but the political maneuvering, in style and intent, probably isn’t all that removed from what’s going on with the MCC search.

[Read more →]

Tags: Articles, David Gantt, Democrat and Chronicle, Mr. Peabody by Mr. Peabody
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You’ve got to hand it to the Democratic Party here in New York State.  In keeping up with modern times the Dems have created their very own version of ‘Reality TV.’  You won’t be able to find what you’ve missed in the Democrat & Chronicle though.  They seem to be more interested in helping David Gantt run for re-election than reporting on what potential illegal activity is taking place at the highest levels of state government.

The New York Sun reported yesterday that newly minted NY Governor David Paterson did indeed use taxpayer dollars for unnecessary hotel stays near the capital, even though he only lives 11 miles away and has a state provided chauffeur to drive him around.  Paterson tossed former political colleague and ally, disgraced Democratic Governor Eliot Spitzer, under the bus claiming that it was due to the demanding former Governor that Paterson needed to stay close by for the grueling schedule Spitzer forced then Lt. Gov. Paterson to keep pace with.

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Tags: Articles, David Paterson, Mr. Peabody by Mr. Peabody
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The D&C is reporting that the Appellate Division’s Fourth Department found in favor of the Monroe County School Board Association’s lawsuit it brought against the County’s FAIR Plan.  As you know, the intention of the FAIR Plan was to utilize collected sales tax revenues to pay for Monroe County’s increasing Medicaid costs prior to distributing the remaining funding the County shares with local school districts across Monroe County, except for the Rochester City School District, which would not have been impacted by the move. 

The County chose this course of action to pay for mandated welfare costs instead of increasing property taxes on homeowners.  But the Rochester Democratic Assembly Delegation (David Gantt, Susan John, David Koon & Joe Morelle) made it clear they would not allow Monroe County to raise its sales tax a penny to pay these costs.  Their resistance was meant to force Monroe County to raise property taxes on us homeowners instead.

Well, if the local Assembly Dems and democrats in the County Legislature have their way, we property taxpayers will foot the bill for these increased welfare costs.  I don’t know about you, but as a member of middle class I just can’t take another hit.  At least with the sales tax I could control my purchases.  Will my school district retract their huge proposed tax increase now that they don’t need the money?  Doubt it.  They’ll find another reason to need it “for the kids.”

Monroe County says it will appeal.  I hope to God they do or New York is losing two more people who are among the decreasing number helping to foot the bill.

Tags: Articles, David Gantt, David Koon, Democrat and Chronicle, Joe Morelle, Maggie Brooks, Mr. Peabody, Susan John by Mr. Peabody
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This afternoon, U.S. Congressman Tom Reynolds announced his retirement today to the residents of the Monroe County portion of his district.  He shared that one of the reasons for making the decision was his wish to spend more time with his family, namely his two grandchildren whom he says he rarely has the opportunity to see due to his position. 

Hopefully, you can still watch this video from 13WHAM for coverage on the Reynolds press conference here in Monroe County.

Earlier in the day, Reynolds made the announcement at a fire hall in the Buffalo area.

No one can deny that serving in elected office does indeed place a strain on a person’s family life, especially at the national level.  I don’t know many people that could handle this, or that would even want to.  The time spent away from your loved ones while you’re away.  Even when you’re back home, you’re still traveling across a large district meeting with groups of people and attending community events.  It’s easy to criticize these people and treat them like they’re not regular people, but they had everyday lives before they got into public service.  Walk a mile in their shoes.

I personally think Reynolds was going to have another tough election this year.  Last time he ran, the Democrat organization sunk to one of their lows in trying to smear mud on him in the form of the inappropriate actions of another congressman.  If the Democrats forced Reynolds to be “his brother’s keeper” back then, then the Democrats had better be prepared to make the same apologies for their top dog, the disgraced former Democratic Governor of NY Eliot Spitzer.  I seem to recall that it was Republicans who shouted the loudest for the resignations of both individuals.

To Reynold’s credit, he made the trip to Monroe County to let his constituents here, know of his intentions to retire.  Many others would very well have made their announcement close to home and called it a day, leaving the media to spread it across the district.  This speaks volumes to Reynold’s character.  He spent more time in EVERY portion of his district than Louise Slaughter ever did.  People in Greece, for example, will tell you that they saw Reynolds in town more during his first year representing them than they did, or have, Louise is all her many years.  Does anyone even know that she still represents a portion of north Greece?  Of course not.

And Reynolds delivered big time to the communities in western Monroe.  Funding we here at Monroerising.com doubt we’ll ever see here again if one of the Buffalo Democrats win this seat.  At least we know that state Senator George Maziarz (mentioned as a possible candidate for the seat) would care about us here.  He currently represents western Monroe towns and portions of the City of Rochester as part of his Senate district.  IMO, we’ll never see that with one of the Buffalo Dems.

Bottom line, Congressman Reynolds is a stand up guy who despite the nasty and malicious attacks made against him by the Democrat machine, truly cared about his constituents and his district.  Even in his retirement, the Dems still feel the need to smear him and his name for their own political gain.

Tom, if you happen to read this, we at Monroerising.com thank you for your many years of elected service to your constituents, we thank you for your hard work and personal sacrifice, and we wish you and your family the very best as you go back to having a normal, personal, family life.  Godspeed.

Tags: Articles, Federal Officials, Mr. Peabody by Mr. Peabody
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Numerous media outlets are reporting that Governor Elliot Spitzer, under federal investigation for money laundering, human trafficking and soliciting the services of a prostitute, will very well announce his resignation today.  It is widely reported that the Governor and his legal team are negotiating with federal investigators to exchange his elected position and possibly his law license for a much reduced sentence as part of his conviction.

The NY Times reported this morning that Governor Spitzer’s aides leaked to them that the Governor’s wife, Silda Spitzer is urging Governor to not resign his position.

Not only does Governor Spitzer completely humiliate his wife by having her stand by his side while he tells the media and the citizens of New York that basically he does not deny any of the rumors and charges against him, he is now using her “support” as a reason for possibly refusing to resign amidst this scandal.

Where is NOW to help and stand up for this poor woman during this horrible time in her life.

If they don’t come out to defend her, they lose what little shred of credibility they had left in serving as an organization created to support women.

Tags: Articles, Elliot Spitzer, Mr. Peabody by Mr. Peabody
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Elliot Spitzer did not deny that he was involved with a high priced prostitution ring.  This basically means one thing, Elliot Spitzer very well broke the law and engaged in sexual acts with a prostitute.  The New York Times is now reporting that Spitzer was identified as Client #9 in a federal wiretapping investigation into The Emperors Club VIP, an expensive prostitution service that charged between $1000-$5000 an hour. 

Here is a snipet from the article:

The man described as Client 9 in court papers arranged to meet with a prostitute who was part of the ring, Emperors Club VIP, on the night of Feb. 13. Mr. Spitzer traveled to Washington that evening, according to a person told of his travel arrangements.

The affidavit says that Client 9 met with the woman in hotel room 871 but does not identify the hotel. Mr. Spitzer stayed at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington on Feb. 13, according to a source who was told of his travel arrangements. Room 871 at the Mayflower Hotel that evening was registered under the another name.

Here is a link to Spitzer’s statement at the press conference as well as some additional reporting.

And the actual statement here:

Over the past nine years, eight as attorney general and one as governor, I’ve tried to uphold a vision of progressive politics that would rebuild New York and create opportunity for all. We vowed to bring real change to New York and that will continue. Today, I want to briefly address a private matter. I have acted in a way that violated the obligations to my family and that violates my — or any — sense of right and wrong. I apologize first, and most importantly, to my family. I apologize to the public, to whom I promised better. I do not believe that politics in the long run is about individuals. It is about ideas, the public good and doing what is best for the State of New York. But I have disappointed and failed to live up to the standard that I expected of myself. I must now dedicate some time to regain the trust of my family. I will not be taking questions. Thank you very much. I will report back to you in short order. Thank you very much.

In the audio, you can clearly here a reporter asking him to actually make the apology to his wife who was standing next to him at the press event.

In addition, reports are stating that Governor Spitzer had an account with The Emperors Club VIP and actually still owed on the account.  The federal complaint includes the taped conversation between “Client #9″ and the prostitute setting up the specifics for the encounter at a Washington D.C. hotel on February 13th.  News reporters are now asking about Spitzer’s money trail and how he made payments to The Emperors Club VIP.  Also noted are supposed e-mails regarding interaction between Spitzer and the club.

We had heard that Spitzer was going to announce his resignation at the press conference.  That didn’t happen, but word around the capital is that this may indeed still take place.  Some are intimating that it may have already, but quietly, occurred and that another announcement may take place later today or tomorrow. 

We’ll continue to keep you posted on any breaking events with regards to this story.

Tags: Articles, Elliot Spitzer, Mr. Peabody by Mr. Peabody
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